Thanksgiving Turkey Bred For Taste But Not For Love

That big bird on your Thanksgiving table comes from a tiny genetic background, bred for little more than size and taste and transformed almost beyond recognition from its wild ancestors.

One type of turkey now dominates Thanksgiving feasts in America, a variety called "Broadbreasted White" that is so buxom it can no longer breed naturally but needs the help of man, using artificial insemination.

An unrequited love life is but one of the many concessions made in the name of cuisine. These genetically uniform turkeys are now cheaper to produce and buy than ever, with more tasty white meat and thicker thighs. They've also been bred with all-white feathers, so as to not offend consumers with unsightly skin pigment when plucked.

The result is birds that may please the contemporary American palate but would leave a Pilgrim-era settler wondering what the giant pale fowls might be. Domestic turkeys have been bred to a point of genetic sameness that far exceeds other most other species manipulated by man.

For most of American history, the turkey held an important role on the small family farm. But the birds in today's supermarket, produced by companies large enough to have the technology to breed them, bear scant resemblance to the long, lean birds that roam our woodlands.

Three international companies - Nicholas Turkeys of Sonoma, Calif., along with two British-based companies - control the breed stock of 90 percent of all turkeys, says the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

"The turkey is the ultimate in animal breeding schemes," said Robert O. Hawes, a turkey expert and professor emeritus of animal and veterinary science at the University of Maine. "The whole concept of genetic diversity has been lost in the poultry industry."

"Wild turkeys are a lean, tougher meat, with a gamey flavor due to eating wild apples and acorns and such," Hawes said. "I'm not sure consumers would like them as well."

It was Nicholas Turkeys that in the late 1950s developed the large turkey that is now the industry standard. Founder George Nicholas was able to create giant birds with an abundance of white breast meat.

While tasty and profitable, these lumbering birds were less stellar in making babies.

"They are so big that they can't reach the hens or they injure the hens and can't balance to mount properly," said Donald E. Bixby of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy in Pittsboro, N.C.

Nicholas was faced with a choice: either start shrinking birds or create a more practical way for them to reproduce. He pioneered the use of artificial insemination in turkeys in the mid-1960s, a technique quickly adopted by other breeders. Now, virtually all turkeys sold commercially - including the popular and pricey "range-reared" animals - are unable to reproduce without assistance.

"What this means is that the average farmer can't breed his own turkeys at home," Bixby said. "They have to rely on large companies that have the technologies to produce the chicks."

Modern turkeys not only grow far larger than in nature, but faster, as well. In 1960, it took 22 weeks to produce a 22-pound turkey. It now takes only 15.5 weeks.

So the 10-pound turkey on the dinner table is probably an immature female. If allowed to grow, the average male turkey attains a weight of more than 50 pounds within four months.

Farmers are finding that the lightest bird is the most productive, while the huge male genetic lines are least able to fertilize eggs.

Although size is good news for price-conscious consumers, it can create structural problems for turkeys. Their legs, for instance, can weaken or collapse under the burden of their weight.

UC-Davis poultry expert Ralph Ernst says the tip of a joint in a turkey leg, called the hock, calcifies as it matures and becomes strong. But if it remains too soft while the bird rapidly gains weight, the bone deforms under the pressure - crippling the bird.

"In the wild, there is natural selection for long-legged fast birds that could escape by running," Ernst said.

A different kind of selection occurs at farms. At Nicholas Turkeys Breeding Farms, for example, workers conduct a "walking evaluation." The birds stroll down an aisle and are culled if they walk poorly, have bad posture, respiratory problems, crooked toes or other defects.

Next, they are selected on the basis of weight.

The increased efficiency means better bargains. From 1949 to the late 1990s, the price of turkeys dropped 4.5 percent per year - more than twice the index for all livestock and commodity groups.

"Consumers like a big bird with a lot of white meat," said a spokeswoman for the National Turkey Federation. "So turkey producers have created a big bird that is largely white meat."